Tag Archives: Category: Marriage and Family

SCOTUS Blog: The four same-sex marriage cases challenging the Sixth Circuit’s ruling that upheld four states’ bans have now been set for consideration by the Justices at their Conference on Friday of this week. The post below has been expanded.

The New York Times: As a legal matter, the spat may eventually be settled in court: Greg Scott, a spokesman for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said that the chief and his lawyers were “currently assessing legal options” that might “vindicate his right to free speech.”

AJC: On Sunday, Cochran released a statement through Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization that advocates for the freedom to express faith: “This happened to me, but it’s really not about me,” Cochran’s statement read. “It’s a warning to every American that freedom of speech and freedom of religion are hanging by a thread, which will snap if we don’t fight to preserve these cherished protections.”

Charisma News: “Such alarming bias and hostility toward Jack’s religious beliefs—and toward religion in general—has no place in civil society, let alone on a governmental commission that sits in judgment of whether he may follow his faith in how he runs his business,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco.

Mass Live: Patricia Rivas, who is 16, sometimes can’t afford a taxi ride to bring her 1-year-old daughter to another medical appointment. She realizes, she said, having given birth when she was 15, that she is scorned by many people as a “child who had a child.”

Religion News Service: A Belgian bishop who has been touted as a future leader of that country’s Catholic hierarchy is making waves by urging the church to find ways to recognize same-sex relationships in which “exclusivity, loyalty, and care are central to each other.”

One News Now: If the court again refuses to hear the cases, attorney Caleb Dalton of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) says, “That would just leave in place these decisions by the federal courts that have upheld the states’ laws, specifically in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Louisiana. It would also leave in place some confusion because other federal courts have ruled the other way, so there would be kind of a split amongst the federal courts.”

The Bellingham Herald: “The court should uphold the freedom of Americans to affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman,” said Jim Campbell, an attorney with the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defending Freedom, which has fought against same-sex unions in four states.

Baptist Press: “It seems that they are waiting for this to sort of trickle out,” Kellie Fiedorek, litigation counsel for ADF, said. She expects the high court to wait on a decision from the Fifth Circuit and possibly the 11th Circuit, which consists of Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

Independent: “The court should uphold the freedom of Americans to affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman,” said Jim Campbell, an attorney with the Scottsdale, Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, which has fought against same-sex unions in four states.

Christian Today: “The city nonetheless fired him for nothing other than his Christian faith,” the group said. “ADF and Chief Cochran are currently assessing the legal options available to vindicate his right to free speech.”

Charisma News: ADF attorneys jumped into the fray, contending the city illegitimately demanded that the pastors, who are not party to the lawsuit, turn over their constitutionally protected sermons and other communications simply so the city could see if the pastors have ever opposed or criticized the city.

The Daily Signal: Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran was fired on Tuesday by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. Why? Because, on his own private time, Cochran wrote a book expressing his biblical understanding of sexual morality.

Christian News Network: A Georgia fire chief has been fired following a 30-day suspension over a book that he published two years ago that contains remarks decrying homosexual behavior and other forms of sexual perversion.

KTAR News: “The majority of Christianity believes that behavior is wrong,” said Eric Stanley, the Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom. “With an ordinance like this, they would be coerced by the government to accept that type of behavior and to celebrate it.”

Baptist Press: “It seems that they are waiting for this to sort of trickle out,” Kellie Fiedorek, litigation counsel for ADF, said. She expects the high court to wait on a decision from the Fifth Circuit and possibly the 11th Circuit, which consists of Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

CDA Press: Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Press Wednesday that the organization has not changed its goal of obtaining a formal clarification to the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance.

Miami Herald: Among the first tangible signs that Florida government has accepted that same-sex couples can be legally married: Same-sex spouses of state employees are now eligible for state coverage for health insurance and retirement benefits.

Reuters: The nine justices of the Supreme Court, who opted in October not to take up the issue of state marriage laws, are set to meet behind closed doors on Friday to consider once again whether to hear any cases on the contentious issue.

Religion News Service: “Whatever the role in which you serve within the Archdiocese, you publicly represent the Catholic Church and the Archdiocese in everything you do and say,” Wenski wrote in the memo, which was reported by the local NBC station.

Religion News Service: The United Methodist Church is dropping a complaint against a retired bishop who performed a 2013 same-sex wedding in Alabama, offering at least a brief respite within a larger heated debate over same-sex marriage.

The Daily Signal: Florida Republicans Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio – both potential presidential candidates – offered their reaction to their state’s recent decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, after a federal district judge ruled that it was unconstitutional for county clerks to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Public Discourse: Jonathan Eig’s new book tells the story of the invention and popularization of the contraceptive pill. A pleasant, biographically-inflected history, the book repeats standard post-sexual revolution rhetoric, untroubled by too much complexity.

Zenit: The bishops of Florida have issued a statement addressing the redefinition of marriage in Florida to accommodate couples of the same sex. Same-sex marriage is now recognized in 36 states and Washington, D.C..

First Things: More than ever, the makers of television and film attempt to portray women with the same depth and complexity as their male counterparts. Yet a subtle and unnoticed misogyny thrives. Caricatures of women persist in depictions of frivolous gay characters, especially in the sassy “gay best friend.”

The Christian Post: An ex-gay organization is planning legal action against the District of Columbia for its recent banning of conversion therapy, also called Sexual Orientation Change Efforts therapy, for minors.

Christianity Today: In response to same-sex marriage, hundreds signed a pledge endorsed by First Things to separate civil and Christian marriage. LifeWay Research found that 1 in 4 pastors (and 1 in 3 Americans) support such a move. Here’s how theologians and other experts answered the question.

ADF Media: The city of Glendale, Arizona Tuesday temporarily averted repeating the mistakes of Houston, Texas by postponing passing a controversial ordinance that could have serious ramifications on religious freedom within the city. The Alliance Defending Freedom attorney who represented pastors opposed to Houston’s ordinance is a Glendale resident and, in a letter to the council, encouraged the city not to repeat Houston’s error, which led to legal action and a media firestorm in October.

Christian News Network: While agreeing to issue “marriage” licenses to same-sex couples as per a federal court ruling, several counties throughout Florida have decided to no longer allow weddings to be held at their courthouses in order to avoid being required to officiate homosexual ceremonies.

Family Studies: Shifting family structures and the transformation of American community life are typically engaged separately, the assumption being that the thesis of Bowling Alone doesn’t have a lot to do with today’s changing family patterns. And there are many ways in which what goes on between neighbors, within volunteer associations, and through other social networks don’t touch the more enduring bonds within families, which have roots and dynamics internal to themselves. But reading Marc Dunkelman’s updated take on precisely how American community has changed in his 2014 book, The Vanishing Neighbor, I was prompted to ask how the social shifts he observes might be putting the family in a more fluid and uncertain place in the hierarchy of relationships Americans, and particularly young adults, engage today.

Family Studies: My own research with working-class young adults leads me to believe that they have basically made peace with sexual permissiveness—at least outside of marriage—even as they retain some ambivalence about it. They tend to move in quickly with new romantic partners, even as they worry that people rush too quickly into relationships. From survey data, we know that people without a college education have more lifetime sexual partners than those with a college education, and that most of them see no problem with premarital sex.

Family Studies: The word “home” remains one of the most evocative in the English language, especially in lyric form during the month of December. Countless singers croon of coming home or being home for the holidays, but for many families, including 2.7 million children—that’s one in 28 American kids—an incarcerated partner or parent is not home for the holidays. Each December, I try to be mindful of families with loved ones of all ages behind bars.

Family Studies: In a recent and thought-provoking article for The Atlantic, David Frum connects the nation’s plummeting abortion rates with its surging unwed motherhood rates, suggesting that these trends developed in part because social conservatism “made its peace with unwed parenthood as the inescapable real-world alternative to abortion.”

Christian News Network: “Any privacy and safety policy should respect all children because every child matters,” stated ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Rory Gray. “Both the GCPS policy and the ADF model policy demonstrate that schools can accommodate the desires of a small number of students without compromising the rights of other children and their parents.”

The Daily Herald: “It appears now, with the Sixth Circuit, the Supreme Court will take up one of these cases and decide whether to affirm states’ rights to define marriage between a man and a woman,” said Jim Campbell, a senior attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which opposes same-sex marriage. “The courts are working through the question.”

WSLS: “We applaud the district for listening to parents and respecting their right to control their children’s education and upbringing,” the ADF letter states. “As GCPS’s policy on student privacy demonstrates, schools can reconcile the competing interests in these delicate situations by being respectful of the privacy concerns of all children and sensitive to the diverse needs of individual children.”

Religion News Service: Conservative Christians have been among the most ardent opponents of same-sex marriage for decades. How will they respond if the Supreme Court makes same-sex marriage legal nationwide?

NBC News: A judge in Florida ruled Monday that same-sex couples could marry immediately in Miami-Dade County, and a marriage law elsewhere in the state is set to expire at midnight. Florida will become the 36th state where same-sex marriage is legal.

The Blaze: Just days before a federal judge’s Thursday ruling cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Florida, at least five counties decided that they will no longer conduct courthouse weddings in their jurisdictions.

ADF Media: Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Thursday to Gloucester County Public Schools commending it for adopting a policy that reserves restrooms and changing areas for members of the same biological sex while providing an alternative private facility for students struggling with sexual identity issues.

ADF Media: Alliance Defending Freedom has sent the government of Italy a letter and legal memo regarding mayors who are disregarding Italian law and government orders by registering same-sex marriages performed abroad. Italy recognizes neither marriages nor civil unions between members of the same sex.

The New York Times: In its December issue, the conservative Christian magazine First Things published “The Marriage Pledge,” by Christopher Seitz and Ephraim Radner, both Episcopal priests and theologians who teach at Wycliffe College in Toronto. The pledge commits clergy members not to sign “government-provided marriage certificates.” Its online version has attracted 370 signers.

Fidest: Alliance Defending Freedom has sent the government of Italy a letter and legal memo regarding mayors who are disregarding Italian law and government orders by registering same-sex marriages performed abroad.

National Review: In an article on the decision of Idaho’s governor and attorney general to petition the Supreme Court for review of the Ninth Circuit’s invalidation of the state’s marriage law, ThinkProgress’s Emily Atkin takes a moment to bash the research of University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus regarding the adult outcomes of having been raised by a parent or parents who had same-sex relationships.

Zenit: Recently, a new bill called the Rights of Girls, Boys, and Adolescents was approved by a majority in Mexico’s Senate. The bill was approved despite radical changes to the law initially proposed by President Peña Nieto. Congress removed the so-called, “sexual and reproductive rights,” which activists fiercely advocated.

The National Law Journal: Delta Air Lines Inc., General Electric Co., Target Corp. and 34 other employers have come together to support plaintiffs fighting in a federal appeals court to overturn Florida’s marriage law.

The New York Times: The theory that the falling divorce rate (among other indicators) among college-educated Americans is evidence that marriage has been successfully reinvented in the wake of the sexual revolution; that progressive ideas — the acceptance of premarital sex and cohabitation, an egalitarian vision of gender roles in parenting and breadwinning, a stronger emphasis on romantic compatibility and personal fulfillment — have basically been responsible for that reinvention; and that the main cultural force (setting aside economics) preventing working class Americans from embracing this successful reinvention is the unfortunate persistence of traditionalist norms and attitudes about sex and gender roles.

Law and Religion UK: “It is the Government’s view … that in order to make a decision on whether to take forward the specific proposal to permit legally valid marriage ceremonies for those with non-religious beliefs, it is necessary to carefully consider the legal and technical requirements concerning marriage ceremonies and registration and the range of relevant equality issues. To this end the Government will ask the Law Commission if it will begin as soon as possible a broader review of the law concerning marriage ceremonies.” So in brief, the answer is “Er, not just yet”.